Emotional intelligence — Why it matters?

One of the hottest buzzwords in corporate America today, “Emotional Intelligence” is a psychological concept created by researchers Peter Salavoy and John Mayer. It became hugely popular after the 1995 publication of Daniel Goleman’s book on the topic.

When psychologists began to write about intelligence, they focused on cognitive aspects, such as memory and problem-solving. However, some researchers also recognized the importance of the non-cognitive aspects.

Emotional Intelligence refers to a person’s ability to recognize, understand, and manage his or her emotions and the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence means you understand that your emotions can drive your behavior and impact others positively and negatively. Also, you can learn how to manage your emotions, as well as those of others.

Emotional Intelligence Competencies and Skills

Emotional intelligence consists of two primary competencies: personal and social. Each competency has two skills involving what you see and what you do.

Personal competence refers to how well you perceive your emotions and manage your behavior. It involves self-awareness and self-management. These two skills focus on the individual rather than how a person interacts with others. When you are self-aware, you remain mindful of your emotions as they happen. Good self-management means you can deal with your emotions openly and positively direct your behavior.

With social competence, you understand other people’s moods, behaviors, and motives. Social competence helps you improve the quality of your relationships. Social competence consists of a person’s social awareness and relationship management skills. When you become socially aware, you can accurately assess and understand other people’s emotions. Relationship management creates emotional awareness and helps improve relationship quality.

The Case for Emotional Intelligence

For years, psychologists assumed a person’s IQ determined success. But many researchers quickly learned IQ by itself does not provide a good predictor of job performance. According to numerous studies, IQ accounts for somewhere between four and 25% of job success. Other findings show people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time.

With decades of research now available, emotional intelligence is what separates your star performers from the rest of your employees. Emotional intelligence affects how people manage behavior, social complexities, and personal decision-making to achieve positive results.

Intelligence determines your ability to learn. It stays the same throughout your life. Personality refers to the stable style that defines each person. Unlike intelligence and personality, emotional intelligence gives you a set of flexible skills that you can acquire and improve through practice.

Emotional Intelligence impacts job performance by:

Creating awareness of your emotions so you can manage them better

Managing yourself better to help you make the right decisions and work more productively

Creating awareness of other people’s emotions to enhance your relationships

Increasing emotional intelligence skills to improve how you communicate, respond to change, handle stress, and deliver customer service

Offering highly flexible skills so you can improve with practice

Given the research, you can see how emotional intelligence contributes to professional success. Using a variety of testing methodologies, researchers have found emotional intelligence to be the strongest predictor of job performance. Because it impacts almost everything you say and do, emotional intelligence provides a necessary foundation to perform at the highest levels. It offers a powerful way to focus your energy and achieve positive results.